Bankman-Fried was making his first court appearance since he was released on a record $250million pretrial bail.
The collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange worth $21 billion in November 2021 led to the arrest of the mogul, aged 30, who was accused of taking customer funds to support his Alameda Research hedge-fund.
A parallel complaint was filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against Bankman-Fried. It alleged that he used FTX customer funds as a “personal pocket bank” for investments, political donations, and real estate purchase. He could be sentenced to up to 115 year imprisonment if he is found guilty of fraud and violating campaign finance laws.
Gary Wang, FTX cofounder, and Carolyn Ellison (Alameda CEO) pleaded guilty in criminal and civil cases to fraud and securities violations. The news of the pleas was announced only after Bankman-Fried, who was traveling to the US from the Bahamas, pleaded guilty to criminal and civil charges of fraud and securities violations.
Bankman-Fried, in media appearances after FTX’s bankruptcy filing, admitted that he made mistakes running the exchange, but denied any criminal responsibility.
Judge Lewis Kaplan scheduled a trial for 2 October.